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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127270">Cinders</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloreatCastellum/pseuds/FloreatCastellum'>FloreatCastellum</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Missing Hogwarts Moments [31]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, The Dursleys - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:21:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,392</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127270</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloreatCastellum/pseuds/FloreatCastellum</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>'Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!' said Hermione. 'We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella-'</p><p>-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 114</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Missing Hogwarts Moments [31]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1407286</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>255</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cinders</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘What’s that illness story, then?’ Ron asked, clicking the Deluminator. The light from the little camping lantern was bouncing backwards and forwards as he did so.</p><p>‘What?’ asked Harry distractedly, still staring up at the canvas of the tent.</p><p>‘You know, ages ago - you and Hermione didn’t know any Beedle stories and you both said you knew one about an illness.’</p><p>‘You mean Cinderella? That’s not about an illness. Why?’</p><p>‘I just reckon…’ Ron shifted on his bunk and glanced towards the entrance of the tent, where Hermione was keeping watch. ‘I’m just trying to think of safe topics to discuss with Hermione, you know, to get her back on side.’</p><p>‘Oh,’ said Harry uncomfortably. ‘Yeah I suppose that would count as safe.’</p><p>‘Great. Can you give me a background?’</p><p>Harry looked over at him, baffled. ‘What?’</p><p>‘On the story. I don’t want to bring it up if it involves house elves or-’</p><p>‘It obviously won’t have house elves, it’s a muggle story-’</p><p>‘-or something else that will piss her off,’ continued Ron, ignoring him. ‘Come on, just so I don’t sound like a blithering idiot when I try asking her about it.’</p><p>‘Come on, what?’ said Harry, still bewildered.</p><p>‘Tell me the story!’ Ron urged. ‘Don’t panic, I’m not going to sit in your lap or expect to be tucked in after or anything, just a rough outline so I can plan insightful questions.’</p><p>Harry felt his face grow hot, and he looked back up at the canvas ceiling of the tent. ‘Dursley’s weren’t exactly the type to read me stories,’ he said shortly. ‘I don’t really know it.’</p><p>‘Oh, right,’ said Ron awkwardly. There was a long silence. ‘But it’s not about an illness?’</p><p>‘No,’ said Harry, who was still feeling his insides squirm with something that felt like hurt, or jealousy. ‘I think the princess is called Cinderella. And I think there’s something about an apple, or a mirror or something. And evil step parents - all the muggle stories have evil step-parents. I dunno. Only ever heard snatches.’</p><p>He remembered, very vividly, creeping along the dark hallway of number 4, Privet Drive, the glow of warm light from the crack below Dudley’s main bedroom, his aunt’s simpering voice and Dudley’s giggles as she did silly voices, Harry straining to hear, resisting stepping closer in case the floorboards creaked and he was caught out of his cupboard…</p><p>‘A princess?’ Ron mused.</p><p>‘Dunno, they’re all princes and princesses, I think. Start off poor and abused, find out they’re secretly royalty.’</p><p>‘Convenient.’</p><p>‘Isn’t it?’ said Harry, cracking a rather aching grin. He felt an urge to ask Ron about the other Beedle stories, the ones he had mentioned about hopping pots, but it felt stupid and childish, so he didn’t.</p><p>‘Reckon Lovegood was right?’ he asked instead. ‘About the whole three brothers thing?’</p><p>‘Who cares?’ said Ron flippantly. ‘You’ve got to stop fussing over this hallows stuff, mate. Have you had any more thoughts on horcruxes?’</p><p>‘No,’ said Harry dully. ‘Still don’t know any more than you…’</p><p>‘Come on,’ said Ron bracingingly, ‘there’s only three left - let’s go through the list of possible locations again-’</p><p>‘Let’s not,’ said Harry grumpily.</p><p>‘You never know, we could have a poke around in Upper Flagley - it’s quite posh round there, almost entirely wizarding-’</p><p>‘Go and ask Hermione about fairytales,’ Harry muttered, rolling over pointedly, but Ron wasn’t listening.</p><p>‘And I know I sneered off Albania when I was being a twat before, but perhaps if we did some research, if one of us snuck into a library or something to get maps and stuff, we could narrow down the forest - might be safer to get out of the country while we think anyway-’</p><p>He let Ron jabber away while he brooded in silence, thinking about Elder wands and Resurrection stones and inherited cloaks, and somehow he thought he could hear the click of Dudley’s light switch, and felt the urge to scurry as quickly and silently as possible to the safety of his cupboard.</p><p>***</p><p>‘Here they are,’ said Andromeda, with a bit of a huff as she lowered a dusty and heavy looking cardboard box down the little ladder. Harry grabbed it, leaning backwards slightly under its weight. Inside he could see the spines of dozens of books, all of them brightly coloured, many with flimsy, shiny covers or the sort of crinkled edges that made him sure there would be pop-ups.</p><p>‘Ted used to read them to Dora,’ said Andromeda, coming back down the ladder. Her tone was deliberately cheerful, but Harry could see a slight shine to her eyes. ‘He was better at the voices than me, so she always asked for him to do it.’</p><p>‘Some of these are muggle,’ he said with surprise, pulling out The Very Hungry Caterpillar.</p><p>‘Oh, yes - I forgot, you’ll be familiar with these, won’t you? I forgot you were brought up by muggles.’</p><p>‘Dragged up by muggles,’ Harry corrected with grin. He turned the book over to read the blurb. ‘I always wanted this one - we read it once at school and I loved it, but I don’t really remember much of it and… I didn’t have a copy at my aunt’s.’</p><p>‘Well, if you’re keen, that’s good,’ said Andromeda briskly. ‘He won’t understand yet, but babies like being read to, so you may as well start now.’</p><p>He looked up at her, still feeling a lurch of nerves. ‘Do they? I’m sorry, I really can’t emphasise how inexperienced I am-’</p><p>‘You’ll be fine. I’m here to keep an eye on things anyway, aren’t I?’</p><p>‘Yes…’ he said, looking back into the box. The Brothers Grimm Collection, said the spine of the thickest book, and he pushed it slightly and tilted his head to read the front.</p><p>Hansel and Gretel<br/>Snow White<br/>Rapunzel<br/>Cinderella<br/>Little Red Riding Hood</p><p>‘Oh, she loved that book,’ said Andromeda suddenly, her voice cracking slightly. Harry looked back up at her, still a few steps up the ladder, swallowing as she blinked rapidly. ‘Hansel and Gretel she liked, and Red Riding Hood - should have seen the wolf thing coming really, shouldn’t we?’ she said, with a watery sort of smile.</p><p>Harry smiled weakly back.</p><p>Andromeda cleared her throat, and vanished once more into the loft. ‘Take those through to his room then,’ she said, ‘and put them on the shelves. I’ll dig about for Dora’s old stuffed toys.’</p><p>Taking the hint, Harry nodded, though Andromeda could not see, and headed to the nursery. Baby Teddy was asleep in his moses basket, because the cot was still being constructed, and the room smelled of fresh paint, Harry having painted it a robin’s egg blue under Andromeda’s instruction just the day before.</p><p>He stepped over the side of the cot still to be attached and the scattered nails, past the sleeping baby, and over to the little bookshelf that had been cleared of Tonks’s old school books. He could have done it with a wave of his wand, but the wobble in Andromeda’s voice as she had sent him away prompted him to take his time, to stack them on the shelf one at a time, neatly and carefully.</p><p>Halfway through, Teddy grizzled, and Harry looked over his shoulder. There was a moment of silence, and then a spluttered, raw cry.</p><p>‘It’s all right, it’s all right,’ Harry told him, rising and picking him up. He smelled awful, and Harry gave a quick wave of his wand to instantly vanish the mess he would rather not imagine beneath the onesie.</p><p>‘How’re we going to get you back to sleep then, hmm?’ Harry asked him, bouncing him slightly against his shoulder as Mrs Weasley had shown him. ‘Let’s have a look…’</p><p>He seized the thick, heavy book he had just placed on the shelf, and put it on top of the dresser, opening it to a random page near the back and flicking until he found…</p><p>‘Once upon a time,’ he said in a low voice, ‘there was a girl called Cinderella. She was called this because her evil step mother forced her to sleep in the cinders by the fireplace…’ He smirked down at Teddy, who was drooling obliviously onto his collar. ‘No wonder my aunt never read me this, eh? Anyway… as well as her evil step-mother, she had two ugly step-sisters…’</p>
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